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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on June 25, 2014 at 8:29am

Very nice pro setup. I bet the guys over at the Pickup Makers Forum would be very interested in your build.
http://music-electronics-forum.com/f11/

How are you making the bobbins?

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Permalink Reply by mojoatomic on June 25, 2014 at 8:39am

Thank you! Those guys didn't really care about my setup, they're doing different things :-) Too much cork sniffing for me. 

I laser cut my bobbins, both prototype and production. I assemble them with an inexpensive 1 ton arbor press; everything comes out super square and nice and neat. 

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Permalink Reply by mojoatomic on June 25, 2014 at 12:46pm

Not the greatest pic, but I'm using it here to cut out a fretboard from acrylic for a lap steel -

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Permalink Reply by Philip Hale on April 29, 2016 at 7:11pm

This is fascinating to me, and I would love to know how this
fret slot cutting setup works.
Regards
Philyaboots

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on June 27, 2014 at 6:11am

I agree there is a lot of cork sniffing over there. I can't believe they didn't like your setup though based on things I've seen over there. Oh well, their loss...

Where can ordinary mortals get hold of a laser cutter?

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Permalink Reply by mojoatomic on June 27, 2014 at 6:28am

It's cool, they're just doing different things I guess.

I just genuinely want to give a workable idea and good design to the community and provide an alternative and enhanced capability over most of the winders currently on the market, at a lower price to build then even the entry level models.

I saved up quite a bit for mine a few years back - it's an Epilog Helix, made in Colorado. There really are only two American companies producing products in this market segment - Epilog and Universal.I've used both and both are EXCELLENT products with top notch American based support. You don't get sent to a call queue in India when there's an issue with the equipment from either of these companies, or wait for an email from mainland China. 

I normally don't mention that I have a cutter, puts people off sometimes and makes them think your something you're not. The truth is I'm a buy one, cry once kind of guy when it comes to tools of consequence, and I saved up my nickles and eventually bought the tool that I wanted.

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Permalink Reply by Philip Hale on April 29, 2016 at 7:08pm

Good for you.
Thanks Again

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Permalink Reply by Dan Mullen on June 25, 2014 at 9:54pm

Fantastic write up.  Thanks for sharing the details on the build.  The only question I have is why are there two holes in the opto interrupter? I would have thought it would have only need to pickup a signal once per rev.

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Permalink Reply by mojoatomic on June 26, 2014 at 2:30am

Thanks Dan, glad you like it. The two holes in the disk are for balance - the first prototype disk I made had one hole and the lathe almost walked off the bench :-) Two holes makes it run super smooth. 

Both the Tachometer and the Counter are easily programmable for multiple counts per revolution, so you could make a disk with many more holes it you wanted to. As it is, you just program them both for 2 counts per rev and everything stays balanced and accurate. The optical sensor and counter are fantastically accurate - 3000 RPM isn't even getting close to their limits. 

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Permalink Reply by Philip Hale on April 29, 2016 at 7:06pm

Great stuff, I love it and thank you for sharing.
Regards
Phil Hale
aka Philyaboots

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